Silver Falls

After checking out of our hotel in Salem on Tuesday, August 21, we headed 30 minutes east to our next site seeing place, Silver Falls State Park.  Silver Falls is home to 10 different waterfalls and the 8 mile Canyon Trail takes you right in front of all of them and even behind some of them.

On our drive to Silver Falls, we drove passed fields and fields to Christmas tree farms.  The whole mountainsides were covered in Christmas trees of all sizes growing in perfect rows.  When we got to the state park, we parked near the South Falls which was were the visitor center and other gift shops and things were.  Then we hiked down to the South Falls:

It was pretty awesome especially when we got to walk behind the waterfall and feel the mist on our faces.  The South Falls is a 177 ft waterfall.  This is the fall that most people see because you have to hike to the rest of the falls.  We were planning on doing the full 8 mile loop because the websites said it was a paved trail so we could take the stroller.  When we got there, however, the only paved part of the trail was around the South Falls the rest was just dirt hiking.  So we only ended up seeing 7 of the 10 falls because they were the ones we could get to easily with kids.  We still probably ended up hiking about 6 or 7 miles though because we had to back track a lot. 

We did take the stroller down to the next closest fall the Lower South Falls.  We were wishing we had our jogging stroller instead of our double stroller because it would have been easier to push over the rocks and dirt.  On our way to the Lower South Falls we saw this cool dead tree that was perfect for Emily to fit in.

Here is the Lower South Falls.  This one was also very beautiful and we got to walk behind it as well.  The Lower South Falls is a 93 ft waterfall.  This one was hard to get a stroller to because there were 185 steep steps to climb down and then back up to get there.  We had to leave the stroller at the top of the stairs.  Once again Russell practised his Fire Fighting physical by packing Emily and Colby back up the stairs at the same time.  After seeing this Lower South Falls, we headed back to the South Falls area for lunch.  After eating lunch and walking around the little shops, we drove up to another trail head to go see some more of the waterfalls.

The first fall we came to along this trail was the Winter Falls, which is a 134 ft waterfall.  Like the name suggests, this fall is best in the winter and spring when all of the snow run off comes down.  Because we were seeing it in the summer there wasn't much water coming down so I didn't take a picture of it.  The next fall we saw on the trail was the Middle North Falls:

Also very cool and very green.  We got to walk behind this 106 ft waterfall as well.

Further down the trail is the Drake Falls, which falls 27 ft.  We got to see this one from an overlook above the falls.  Sorry no picture.

Next we saw the Lower North Falls: 

The Lower North Falls is a 30 ft waterfall. This one was cool because you could see all of the old trees that had fallen into the river and been carried over the falls.  This waterfall also fell into a large pool and the water was so clear you could see pretty much to the bottom.

The last fall we saw was the Double Falls:

This fall has a double drop but at 178 ft it is the largest fall in the park.  By the time we had hiked to all of these falls, we were tired and we still had to hike back up to our car.  When we got to the switchbacks that lead straight up to the parking lot, we were exhausted from carrying kids or from the sheer fact that the trail was all up hill.  Emily and Colby were both complaining their legs hurt and I don't blame them because they walked a long way especially on their little legs.  I just kept wondering how the pioneers walked across the country with their little kids.  I bet they were so tired everyday.  Finally we got to the car.

Colby did ride in style for most of the hike though.  It was so funny because he would get on Russell's shoulders and hold onto Russell's ears as if they were handles.  I thought it was very smart of Colby to figure that out. 

In all the waterfalls were really cool to see and they even made the long hike worth it.  I am glad we went here and saw them.

After seeing the falls, we headed to our next destination, Newport, OR and the Coast!  On our way to the coast, we travelled through Corvallis, OR which was another one of Russell's areas on his mission.  We drove around Corvallis for a while seeing the town and Russell was trying to remember where his old apartment was.  We never did find it though because after 10 years, Russell couldn't remember where it was.  It looked like a nice area though.  It seemed like all of the roads in Oregon were windy because the all went around mountains and through forests.  Well on the way to the coast, Colby got car sick and puked all over himself!  Then when Emily smelled it she started gagging too.  Luckily she didn't puke as well.  She got car sick earlier in the week when we were driving from Yreka to Horse Creek along that windy road but luckily she warned us and we had a cup for her to puke in.  After that she realized that if she closed her eyes and went to sleep she didn't get sick. Colby on the other hand gave us no warning that we could understand except crying.  Finally we got him cleaned up on the side of the road, got him in new clothes, and headed back on our way to Newport.  What an exciting trip!